Apparently, we were more prescient (or slow) than we thought when we asked "Who Should Tata Buy Next?" It turns out that, as part of the Ford-Tata deal, Tata ended up owning not only the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, but also Daimler, Rover and Lanchester. Someone is going to have to re-do that chart. The story of how the names have transfered is kind of hilarious and featured under the jump. It also may have played into the mysterious $300 million that evaporated from the big deal this week.

As we learned yesterday, every automaker owns every other automaker and it's just a matter of…
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Lanchester

This one is easy. Based in Birmingham, England, the Lanchester Motor Company made cars from the late 19th century until 1930 when it merged with Daimler.

Daimler

This one is somewhat more confusing. There's Daimler and Daimler. Daimler of Germany is formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and now Daimler AG. This isn't to be confused with Daimler of Britain, which made cars using Gottlieb Daimler's engines. That company traded hands to the British Small Arms Company, then to Jaguar and then to Ford through PAG. The last Daimler made was the Jag XJ-rebadged Daimler Super Eight. With the purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover, Tata inherits British Daimler.

The second spawn of Gottleib Daimler, and once Britain's most prestigious auto marque,…
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Rover

Chinese Automaker Shanghai Auto (SAIC) merged with Nanjing Auto, which purchased the struggling Rover brand and all its assets. Well, not quite all of its assets. BMW had the Rover brand years ago and never parted with the name. Unwilling to sell it to the Chinese, who were forced to call their cars Roewe, the company sold it to Ford, a better steward and a company that didn't want Rovers out there being confused with Land Rovers. But now, with this deal, that name gets transferred to Tata.

This means that, in theory, we can have Indian built Nanos rebadged as Daimlers or Rovers while actual MG/Rover products are being built in China under the name Roewe. If we were Tata, we'd consider selling the Rover brand to SAIC.